WikiLeaks will release new secret documents

WikiLeaks will release one million documents next year affecting every country in the world, founder Julian Assange said in a speech from the balcony of the Ecuadorian embassy in London on Thursday, December 20.

In a "Christmas message" marking six months since he sought asylum in the embassy to avoid extradition to Sweden over claims of rape and sexual assault, Assange also said the door was open to negotiations.

Assange said to cheers from around 100 supporters that despite spending half of 2012 holed up in the building it had been a "huge year" in which his anti-secrecy website had released documents about Syria and other topics.

The Australian former computer hacker thanked Ecuadorian president Rafael Correa for granting him asylum and hit out at the United States and other Western governments.

"True democracy is not the White House, true democracy is not cameras, true democracy is the resistance of people armed with the truth against lies from Tahrir to London," he said.

But the 41-year-old added that "the door is open, and the door has always been open, for anyone who wishes to speak to me" to resolve the situation.

Britain has refused to grant him safe passage to either Ecuador or to hospital, saying it has a legal obligation to extradite him to Sweden after Assange lost his final battle in the British courts in June.

Assange claims that if he is extradited to Sweden he could eventually be sent to the United States for prosecution over WikiLeaks' controversial release of secret U.S. military and diplomatic files.

He says he could face life in prison or even the death penalty in the U.S.